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Insisting a professor call a student by their correct pronouns will cost Shawnee State University $400,000.
Shawnee State settled a First Amendment case last week with Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor at the Ohio institution, who was reprimanded in 2018 after he refused to call a transgender student by the pronouns matching her gender identity, citing his Christian faith.
Meriwether subsequently filed a lawsuit against the university, which was dismissed by a district court, but an appeals court found last year that he had been unfairly punished for his speech.
According to the Alliance Defending Freedom—a controversial advocacy group that often confronts LGBTQ+ rights in its legal work on religious matters—Meriwether “will never be mandated to use pronouns, including if a student requests pronouns that conflict with his or her biological sex.”
An ADF-affiliated attorney represented Meriwether in his lawsuit against Shawnee State. The $400,000 settlement is for damages and legal fees, according to an ADF news release.
Shawnee State University did not reply to a request for comment.
